Will Fine Gael’s Leo get the message in time?

I believe that FG and Labour will eventually form a government after the next government. That will happen because the people have grown tired of the present government. I’m sure that no matter how much worse it gets Fianna Fail’s credibility has been shot to bits while the greens are facing oblivion. Someone recently compared the greens agonising on NAMA and government to a man on death row attempting one more 11th hour appeal to postpone the inevitable. There’s a strong element of this to the feeling out there on the ground.
All of which makes Fine Gael’s response to Labour this week in the light of John O’Donoghue’s resignation somewhat difficult to understand. The days when Alan Dukes used to sneer at Labour “when you’re bought you should stay bought” are now a dim and distant memory. Many in Fine Gael have learnt the lessons although no one seems to have passed on the word yet to Leo Varadkar who spent much of his time on Vincent Brown attacking the Labour Party. One person who understood very well that the greater good was served by taking the longer view was John Bruton.

Bruton had spent much of his political career in regular conflict with Labour. There was the collapse of the first Fitzgerald government to the row with Frank Cluskey over Dublin Gas, the collapse of the second Fitzgerald government and the daddy of them all the showdown at the Shelbourne Hotel when Dick Spring and himself fell out over the formation of a government in 1992. Despite it all and even stronger resistance to the then Democratic Left, Bruton overcame all of this to form the Rainbow government in 1994. I think that the Rainbow was the best administration we had. Divorce was legalised, record number of jobs were created, a successful EU presidency, the spadework done for the euro and when the left office they left their successors a current budget surplus. This administration put in place the conditions for the growth in the economy. Under pinning this administration was a strong social democratic ethos that a conservative like Bruton had no problem living with. I admire Bruton for what he did in the interest of the state.

Leo Varadkar should take a spin out the N3 from Blanchardstown the next time that Ambassador Bruton is home and pick his brains. Leo is some one who has strong traditional views despite his relative youth. Leo’s call to pay unemployed emigrants to return home pushed the right buttons with those in Fine Gael who’ve watched helplessly as the Just Society supporters ran the party for a generation. Leo is opposed to benchmarking, increased public services, quango’s and the national pay agreements. But on the plus side he has a good sense of humour as he recently kindly offered his apartment to NAMA.
This may all be good copy for Leo. But other implications will flow from baiting the Labour Party, public service workers and the unions. Tension will build if this continues. It will contribute to distrust. The less likely that it is that we’ll have an election, the more likely it is that the tension will continue. I haven’t personally come across the tension at a local level.
Loe has criticised Eamon Gilmore’s leadership in the light of the Ceann Comhairle’s resignation suggesting that he should tell ICTU to agree cut wages and jobs but surely Enda Kenny is open to criticism too for his indulgence of Varadkar’s love of his opwn voice.
If Enda Kenny is the strong leader that the country needs, he would surely tell Leo to take a long deep breath when he next sees a microphone and remind him that if Leo ever wants to hold ministerial office he should predicate any remarks he makes on the reality that the voters who he needs to realise this ambition may well reward him are not his own but Labours.

Can John O’Donoghue jump the next hurdle?

John O’Donnoghue must decide whether he’s Ceann Comhairle or Hector Ó hEochagáin. Both share a love of matters equine. Both have been at Bertie Ahern’s side, O’Donoghue as a Minister, Hector famously hung out with Bertie on TV before Bertie was just hung.
Being elected is an honour. Being Ceann Comhairle is a position of enormous trust. You don’t have to run in the nest election. As minister, John clearly enjoyed enormously his time in office and he’s got the receipts to prove it. He was clearly bitten by the travel bug and unfortunately he’s yet to be cured. There is no body to scrutinise his expenses. Many of his expenses are bona fide and relate to his function. Nobody denies him the right to travel abroad on oireachtas business and to get his expenses covered. But in his own words however they seem a little high. If by releasing the details at the time of the Lisbon Referendum he thought he’s escape undamaged he could never have been more wrong. And I accept that he has been a fair chairman of proceedings in the Daíl.

John O’Donnoghue is now living in another world. I remember John O’Donnoghue when he had a direct moral compass. John was very clear on how wrong doers should be punished. It was as clear as the view from the Ring of Kerry on a bright Summer’s day. Zero tolerance was his mantra then. Set his enormous expenses claim against the economic slump John now more resembles Nero tolerance, fiddling while Rome burns. As a consequence I have very little sympathy for him in his present predicament. He ruthlessly put the blame personally on his opposite number Nora Owen for all the failings of the Gardaí or the Department of Justice. In the words of the newspaper article that elected him to office, it’s payback time. I think John O’Donnoghue should stand down as Ceann Comhairle. He will become a distraction as the controversy rumbles on and on it will continue until its inevitable conclusion. John is reaping a whirlwind that he sowed himself many years ago. Why did he need to order limousines to transfer between airport terminals. Why was he giving enormous tips to drivers of a value beyond the amount paid to unemployed people in this country? No one begrudges him an interest in horse racing but why can’t he pay for this interest out of his own pocket? No one begrudges him the endearing company of his wife however does her presence by his side abroad constitute Daíl business?


John O’Donoghue has lost touch with the mood of the people. It’s time for him to meet with party leaders and explain how he will restore the standing of his office in the eyes of the people. I think that’s best done by him vacating the job. What is key now is whether he’ll go or have to be pushed. I wonder what odds Hector is giving? I think however that FF & the greens may well brazen it out on this one and hang on to him despite it all.